A deckle is a removable wooden frame or "fence" used in manual

papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is Pulp and paper industry, made using industrial machinery, while handmade pape ...

. The deckle is placed into a mould to keep the paper pulp slurry within the bounds of the wire facing on a mould, and to control the size of the sheet produced. The mould and deckle is dipped into a vat of water and paper pulp that has been beaten (fibrillated). The pulp is quickly scooped out of the vat and the mould and deckle is shaken as excess water is drained off. The deckle is then removed and the newly formed sheet is "couched" (set) onto felts. Fiber that has been beaten longer generally requires more time to drain. If the paper slurry gets under, or if long fibers settles on top of the deckle, it will cause a more irregular edge. Beginning in the early 1800s with the invention of the

Fourdrinier machine A paper machine (or paper-making machine) is an industrial machine which is used in the pulp and paper industry to create paper in large quantities at high speed. Modern paper-making machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machin ...

, paper was produced in long rolls and the deckle became mostly obsolete.

Deckle edge

Paper with a feathered edge is described as having a

deckle edge In papermaking, a deckle edge is a feathered edge on a piece of paper, in contrast to a cut edge. Before the 19th century, the deckle edge was unavoidable, a natural artifact of the production process in which sheets of paper were made individual ...

, in contrast to a cut edge. Machine-made paper may artificially have its edges produced to resemble a deckle edge.

Other uses

photographic film Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin photographic emulsion, emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the ...

manufacturing, deckles are die inserts that set the coating width of a slot die coater or the extrusion width of an extrusion die. They work by constraining the flow as the material exits the die. Since some materials have a tendency to neck in or spread out after leaving the die, workers may need to adjust the deckle position to achieve target width. Deckle can also refer to the fatty part of a cut of

brisket Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, though the definition of the cut differs internationally. The brisket muscles include the Pectoralis major, superficial ...

References

{{Paper Papermaking